Social workers' emotions and approaches : A study about client threats and violence within the public sector

Using a systematic literature review, this study aims to compile and review previous international research on the emotional impacts and approaches resulted from social workers' exposure to client violence- and threats within the public sector. The awareness of, and academic interest in, social workers’ exposure to violence and threats of many kinds are growing, particularly because employees are experiencing increased psychological distress. A series of research studies conducted by one or other of the authors, emphasizes that social workers in the public sector frequently experience psychological and emotional impact from exposure to workplace violence caused by clients. In their line of work, it’s known to the clients that social workers hold authority in decisions regarding resources and service. Therefore, clients may view social workers not as people who only work for the agencies providing service and resources, but as representatives for these agencies. While Michael Lipsky's theory of street-level bureaucracy is justifying clients' view of social workers as representatives with authority, Åsa Wettergrens is proving a diversity of emotional strategies to manage the situation at hand. With the gathering of eight articles, results showed that emotions such as fear, anger, frustration, guilt and powerlessness were the most frequent ones expressed by social workers. Eventually, social workers developed strategies to manage their own emotions so that they wouldn't interfere with their work. Some social workers convinced themselves to view the clients as people in need of help and not as aggressive individuals, others sought help from their colleagues. Many social workers accepted client's violence and/or threats as a part of their daily job, as there is an ongoing requirement to tolerate its presence, while others decided to distance themselves from the clients.